reggie_212

Well, you're not technically breaking any laws. But it's not in the spirit of the day. I figure if I can put lights on a timer, why not a tv. Our setting the TV on the timer isn't something we announce publicly. Just a few select people know we do this. And, now all you guys know as well. We only do this during the playoffs when the games mean something. It's not something we would do during the regular season. This is the lengths we sport obsessed fans go to. having the timer on the tv is no different than a shabbas goy.

Try being a Cubs fan. Being in Hawaii, the closest thing we could get was one of those Chicago Hot Dogs at Home Depot.

If it were just a game, why did my red sox fan friend, who didn't cry at his father's funeral, start weeping with the Boone homerun?? I can't empathize with this kind of losing. Sure the Yankees have lost TWO world series game 7's on the last at bat, but neither of them seem to be as painful as any of Boston's losses.

gee Trish, thanks! that's probably the most gracious comment i've heard from a Sox fan so far, or will hear. if it makes you feel better, my friends and i missed the game we were scheduled to attend. we had tickets to the sunday game which was rained out and rescheduled for tues. a lot of us, myself included, weren't able to make the tues. game. so if you want to experience a bit of shaddenfreunde, that might make you laugh.

my orthodox friends, big yankee fans, will just leave the tv on... i forgot in my excitement to list my favorite world series food..it's gotta be pizza...you don't want something too complicated such that you have to take your eyes off the tv. you also need something that complements beer. plus, for crying out loud, this is a baseball game! can't really get more casual than that.

YES!!!!! DESTINY ENDS IN NY!!!!!!! I DON'T CARE IF WE LOSE TO THE FISH....DOESN'T MATTER. THIS WIN IS SATISFYING ENOUGH!!

Hi Russ, Thanks for participating on our little message board. I was wondering if you might provide a brief description about how you see the LA dining scene in comparison to other cities like NY or Chicago. Are there maybe general trends you see in LA that are not apparent in other places, or vice versa. Granted, great restaurants are great restaurants no matter where they are. But it would be interesting to see if there are some generalizations you can make regarding how current tastes and trends vary from locale to locale.

Excuse me??!?!?! The Yankees have won 4 World titles, 5 pennants, and EVERY division title since 1996. Never ONCE, not a single time, was there any rioting in our streets. If anything, Boston's own history of rioting over bussing has more of an influence than anything from NY.

Let's Go Yankees! If you want to really feel the electricity, there are many great options around that outhouse of a ballpark called Fenway before and after game time. For pretty decent pub food, there's Boston Beer Works right across from Fenway. If you'll be there Sunday, you can join me and the 25 other Yankee fans bussing up for the game. That's our usual hangout during our annual visit to Boston for when the Yankees are in town. I'm pretty certain they spit on our food. LET'S GO YANKEES!

Hey I bet this lady landlord probably shelled out a few bucks to send this spoiled brat to some super expensive northeast liberal college. We should kick the sh*t out of her for that! How dare she pass off her own wealth or give a leg up to her own flesh and blood... What she should have done with those wasted college funds was subsidize her inexpensively-priced, available to all restaurant tenants. After all, these poor suffering restauranteurs aren't in it for the money, right??

What's with all the landloard bashing?!?!?!?! I don't think any of us have all the information when it comes to why a property owner and tenant disagree and cannot resolve a lease issue. It is premature then to lay complete blame on the landlord. Also, even if a particular property owner decides that their available space could rent for a higher amount, who are any of us to judge whether that's good or bad?? If you were to decide to leave one job for another because the new job paid more, are you "greedy" too? Are you also "greedy" if you change your inverstment portfolio from one earning a low return to a higher return?? It's a bit hypocritical to me, considering you had to have some dough in the first place to eat at Verbena, when you denigrate someone who is just trying to earn a higher income, when we've all done the same thing. If in fact it is the case that the landlord is using ridiculous assumptions concerning market rents and what s/he expects to lease for, well then that person pays a hefty price in lost income from having the place sit unoccupied. That said, I'll miss the back garden as much as anyone.

I'm a little surprised everyone here seems to be trashing Rick for his endorsement decision. Why have all of you taken it upon yourselves to judge the man based on how he makes his money??? I keep on forgetting how everyone here as an unreproachable altruistic career. After all, fine dining is a very inexpensive pursuit, right? The point is Rick is still the same chef today that he was yesterday. If you think his endorsement deal has diminished his ability to run a restaurant, then fine, don't go. It'll make the waiting time much less.

As for the rest, why not hire some college kid as an unpaid research assistant? Don't child labor laws exist to prevent this possibility?!?!?!? Besides, I doubt there would be many takers for an unpaid internship consisting of going blind counting the restaurant listings in the yellow pages. Although Fat Guy, Inc might look good on the resume of any aspiring investment bankers, hedge fund managers, etc.

I haven't been to Pommes Frites in years but i do remember asking the server if the fries she was putting into the deep fryer were cooked already which she confirmed. Given how fast they're able to serve the fries to ou, how could they be raw?? I think if they started with raw potatoes in that big white bin they have, the first thing you would notice is that they would be turning a really nasty color as any unskinned, unsubmersed in water potato would turn. Plus, as I mentioned the cooking time would be alot longer if they started raw.. Can I include in this category your run of the mill home fries from the local greek diner?!?!? I don't know why, but there is nothing better than correctly cooked, slightly burnt, home fries to complement a couple of runny eggs and bacon.

What are you smoking now!??!?! In your original post, you are, without ambiguity, stating that smoking provides economic benefit! Copying verbatim: "...Independent studies conducted in California have concluded that the statewide smoking ban in that state (a) has resulted in a net increase in tourism, (2) has resulted in increase profits for restaurants, and (3) has not effected bar owners one way or another". If I'm reading your statement correctly, if smoking ban, then "benefit" (a), "benefit" (b) and so on... In addition, you've conceded the point that there is only correlation occuring between boom times and the smoking ban, but this is not necessarily an arguement that businesses will not suffer because of the smoking ban. Of course, if your sample period is 97-01 and you see how bars are doing in California ex post the smoking ban, you'll see bars are doing very well. But this doesn't mean bars in NY won't suffer in 03 till whenever this one-term mayor gets booted because of the smoking ban. There are too many factors and interactions involved to without hesitation claim it goes one way or the other. Going back to your original studies, what was the time frame? how many sample observations where there? You condemn those who provide no statistical evidence that the smoking ban will adversely affect businesses, but the studies you yourself cite seem to me to be heavily flawed and lack a full characterization of the situation. I'm not trying to argue with you about the fact that you don't like smoking. If it bothers you, it bothers you. But there are those among us who smoke or who don't mind smoking, and all I'm saying is there should be places for both of us. Let the market work. Your comments regarding the University of Chicago are not worth responding to...

For someone who claims to be so knowledeable concerning statisitics and economic analyses, let me point out a few flaws in your arguements. I hold a Masters and PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago. First, anyone who has taken any elementary statistics knows there is a distinction between causality and correlation. Your citations regarding both the increases in tourism as well as the decreases in heart attacks are indications that there is some correlation occuring, but not necessarily that the smoking ban has had a direct causual relationship. While I have no direct knowledge of the studies you cite, there might be some serious omitted variable bias or time bias. For example, the California smoking ban has been in effect some time, before the good times of the late 90's, so how much weight can you place on the smoking ban having a DIRECT causation when in fact it might be that California being the center of the technology/internet bubble, some of the increase in tourism can be attributed to that? It's a specious arguement at best. Second, the creation of both smoking and non-smoking bars is not necessarily a naive concept. There is a great thing called "the market" and as any Neo-Classical economist knows, the market does best when not interfered with. That is, to put the arguement in a nutshell, if smoking bothers you so much, then go somewhere else. Wherever market opportunites exist, there will be suppliers for that commodity. This, in fact, would be the most welfare maximizing option.

Whoever put Manny's pastrami as being among the best is dead wrong. While I found Manny's corned beef a decent enough sandwich, the pastrami is almost indescribably terrible. First, it has a too greasy, as if they deep fried it for a few minutes, quality. Second, the spicing is all wrong, not even close to a NY pastrami. In fact, whenever friends would visit me from NY (I was in business school at the time) and I would take them to Manny's, against my good advice they would order the pastrami and cry at how bad it was in comparison. Last note, their pastrami has this brownish coloring which I wasn't used to and might have put me off.

I haven't eaten at the Oyster Bar in years but one thing I do whenever I'm in Grand Central with a date is head right to the Oyster Bar's entrance. There's a little plaza, or square or whatever, in front of the entrance and if you stand on one corner and have another person stand in the diagonal corner, both facing the wall, you can wisper and the wisper will carry over the ceiling so that the other person can hear you. It has to do with the domed ceiling of the portico. Kind of neat.

I vaguely remember the Nedicks down on 4th Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets by Union Square, a relatively new condo highrise and the Virgin store are there now. My grandmother used to live on 13th between 4th and 3rd and one of my fondest memories is walking over to Nedicks for a hotdog and orange soda. Being the cynical old bastard I am now at my advanced age (29), while the memory might be dear to me, I can't say as much for the current hot dog. There's a reason why Nedicks went out of business in the first place!

How would I order at PL for two when the two people going have different preferences in terms of cooking the steak? I like it rare while my friend prefers medium well (a TOTAL WASTE of a beautiful cut of meat IMHO). I've never been to PL but have heard that with a party for two you should order the porterhouse for two. I was thinking, money is not much of a consideration, of ordering the porterhouse for two rare and then ordering the shell steak medium well for my friend (since I'm paying I thought I should get the better end of the deal ). The two of us are rather heavy eaters and I'm pretty sure we could polish everything off. But, if there's a better way to reconcile our differences, I would appreciate a suggestion.

Okay, then.... Looks like I'm the no nothing bumpkin, just another of the countless masses who are ruining everything with our generic gentrified tastes. In my defense, I will say that the issue we're discussing concerns personal preference. As an American raised at a, not too, early age drinking cold beer, it as always been the case that I prefer colder to warmer. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. For example, as a general rule, Americans disdain the hand cranked beer commonly found in England, a main reason being the temerature at which it is served (from what I know the casks are kept in a cool basement with no other care needed). Hence, as this relates to Guinness, I was making a personal and cultural statement rather than claiming that on any objective level it is better. I like chocolate, you like vanilla, and that's okay.. The second point I would like to make is that as I mentioned in the original post, there is so much variation in the way Guinness is served. Without a doubt, the Guinness served in Ireland tastes very distinct than the stout exported (in fact, an Irishman I once met in a bar in Barcelona confirmed that there are seperate batches marked "export"--he himself was drinking an Estrella because he couldn't stand the taste of Guinness outside of Ireland). Also, there are differences in the way each individual vendor keeps the kegs. For example, I know the "proper" temperature to serve a Guinness at is about 55F while in most pubs in NYC, the kegs for all the taps are kept in the same place so it is generally served colder than that. I guess the point I'm making then is unless you're drinking a pint in a pub in Dublin, you're not actually drinking an "original" pint of stout.

While in London recently I had a few pints of the Guinness Extra Cold which I found far superior to the original stout. The bartender told me the only difference between the two is that the pumping system for the extra cold variety keeps the pipes cold. Would anyone know of a bar or pub in any major American city that has this equipment? Usually, with most other brand names uniformity is a goal for the product. But with Guinness I have noticed alot of variation in their stout internationally. For one reason or another, the Guinness sold in Europe is generally better than that sold in the states. In addition, even tastier Guinness can be had in Ireland. Ask any Irishman and chances are they would agree.

Would anyone have any good reccomendations for eating alone in Copenhagen? I'm spending a few days there on business and have no idea what to expect except that I will be on my own.

There was a "Knish Knosh" type place but I'm not sure if it was a branch of the Queens store. What I do remember about that block though was that the last Nedicks was there about 20 years ago.

What might be a nice thing to do is walk over the bridge, if that's possible with all the construction going on, for lunch. while they are different lengths, i think it couldn't take much more than crossing the brooklyn bridge which can be done in about 20 minutes at a brisk pace. I wonder if the Great NecK location also serves lunch. I'm coming home for Spring Break and staying at my parent's place in Bayside. It would be so much easier getting to Great Neck than Williamsburg for lunch.